Jessica Schieder — The US Federal Deficit Continues to Shrink

The federal budget deficit has been plummeting in size over the last few years; however, judging from polls, most Americans do not know that – indeed, their concern over the deficit has grown even as the annual deficit has shrunk significantly. And it continues to do so: the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated yesterday that the deficit for the first eleven months of this fiscal year fell $400 billion from the comparable period last year....

Despite the decreasing size of the deficit, 72 percent of Americans surveyed in January 2013 said they felt reducing the budget deficit should be a “top priority” for the president and Congress this year. In January 2009, only 53 percent of Americans said reducing the budget deficit should be a top priority. But back in 2009, the deficit was higher than it is now.... 

As Jamelle Bouie at The American Prospect put it: “Voters associate high deficits with poor economic performance—the public might say that it wants more action to lower the deficit, but what it means is that it wants Washington to improve the economy.”

The public has the causality backward. They see high deficits in recessions and think that it's the high deficits that are causing the recession.

Truthout
The US Federal Deficit Continues to Shrink
Jessica Schieder, Center for Effective Government | News Analysis